I’d call the two minutes and 17 seconds above a resounding success, but then I am a wholly biased Whedon fanboy (I even think that “Dollhouse” has it’s moments). James Spader does creepy superbly, even with his voice run through lots of filters…

“Avengers: Age of Ultron” opens in the UK on 24 April 2015 and in the US on 1 May 2015.

Yay for targeted marketing! In a perfect storm of nerdery, questionable taste in music (mine) and first week sales promotions, the good people at Amazon had a deal this week which offered both the Alan Silvestri original score for “The Avengers“ and the rock-focussed “Music From and Inspired By” soundtrack album for the princely sum of £10.00 on the MP3 store.

Click > Add to Cart > Sold!

The Alan Silvestri score is very solid stuff, if ever so slightly reminiscent of his previous work – you might well find yourself going “Hmm…that sounds very much like the music from ‘Back to the Future‘, don’t you know?”. I’m quite fond of Black Widow‘s theme – “Red Ledger”, a percussive action piece called “Assault” and all of the pieces which accompany that thing with the stuff (I don’t wish to spoil the movie for anybody who hasn’t seen it yet, but “Assemble” and “One Way Trip” are adrenaline-racing fare and score some of the most air-punching/nail-biting bits of the film’s climax).

As to whether you would like this album – do you like to wash dishes and pots to Murray Gold‘s “I Am The Doctor” and Hans Zimmer‘s “The End?” (from the recent “Sherlock Holmes“ sequel)? You do? Get on this score – it’s right up your alley.

They will rock you and break your face if you don’t like it – Five Finger Death Punch

Now to the more divisive release of the two. I’ve written a yippy-skippy piece about the “Music From And Inspired By” soundtrack album previously and I have to admit that I’ve lost none of my affection for it now that it’s on my iPod. Well, let me clarify that – I could have done without Five Finger Death Punch‘s cover version of Faith No More‘s classic “From Out Of Nowhere”, which is clearly a case of a band turning in their take of a song which they loved in their formative years. I don’t hate Five Finger Death Punch as much it is now apparently the law to do – never heard much by them, to be honest – but equally I’m not sure that the world needs a gruff, heads-down cover of a nuanced, singular song by one of the most underrated bands of the last twenty years. If you love Ivan, Zoltan and the boys, your mileage may vary.

No, I’m going to keep my ire firmly for dreadful British hipster dreck Kasabian – they appear on the ‘international’ version of the soundtrack with their tune ‘Pistols at Dawn‘ and will be getting resolutely skipped from here forth: I’m not a fan, oddly enough. In the context of the record – Shinedown, Evanescence, Buckcherry – wouldn’t a band like Halestorm be a lock for inclusion? I suppose that I’m just grouchy because there’s not even a hint of DragonForce or Pythia on the soundtrack…

It is very much as you would expect, in fact – targeted at a variety of rock fans, with the younger set taken care of via everyone’s favourite Motley Crue tribute band, Black Veil Brides (for all my snarking, their song “Unbroken” is catchy as hell) and the aforementioned FFDP. Their older brothers and sisters get Papa Roach, Rise Against (who somehow pull off being punky, poetic, anthemic and grumpy all at the same time – kudos!), Shinedown (really quite liked their song, “I’m Alive”) and Soundgarden to bump in their Ford pick-up trucks.

Bush are still around and sounding not terribly different from their heyday and the smattering of newer artists – Cherri Bomb, PusherJones and Redlight King – don’t amaze particularly but don’t offend either. Cherri Bomb being the pick of that crop, for me at least.

In short – I quite liked the soundtrack. It’s a promotional tie-in for a huge juggernaut of a movie but I liked a lot of the stuff on here and would recommend it to folks who want to check out bands they’re not currently into (Shinedown, on this evidence, will be a band I might want to have a longer listen to). And I’d certainly sub-out Kasabian for Theory of a Deadman (who are on the US release), coolness be damned.